Black Currant

Ugh, computer problems. It is annoying that probably my whole day will be taken up trying to fix and repair things. I need a comforting tea, and preferably one that helps me bust my sample stash. This fits the bill, as I only have a little of it left after this cup. Probably only enough to throw in a cold-steep blend.

I recently discovered some local-ish black currant juice in my grocery store, which was very exciting as I love black currant but it’s not a common thing here in the states. So I guess it’s kind of a black curranty day since I’m having this tea after I had my black currant juice with breakfast. Mmm, there is something just so utterly comforting about black currant (and thus this tea) to me, which is funny because it’s not like it’s a flavor from my childhood. But it is delicious.

My tea of the afternoon…or with lunch, actually. We have been on a short, last of summer trip this week, and we just happened to be in the neighborhood of the Harney & Son’s Millerton Shop. We stopped for lunch and I had Black Currant tea service with a Mike sandwich (ham and gruyere on baguette and grilled). It was lovely, and of course, I had to buy some teas to try out.

Another backlog from last night – such things will happen when you have people over until far too late lol Ah well, at least a really enjoyable evening. Another tea from the travelling tea box (and coincidently the 12 days of christmas swap). I’m still rather enjoying this one, though I’d like to try it as a cold brew still. Something about the black base and the black currant makes me feel like this one could be really tasty cold.

Fiance and I went and saw Desolation of Smaug last night, and while the Tolkien purist in me wanted to weep, it was an excellent film in it’s own right and I’m sad I have to wait until next year for the next one. It’s a really quite long movie, and we didn’t get out of the theatre until 10:30 from our 7:30 showing. Of course this meant I was up way later than I intended (because who can come home from a movie and just sleep, I mean, really?) and up early to get some things done before next week.

I never did get around to making this one iced, (as this is my last bit of it) but I needed something solidly good but not terribly exciting on this groggy morning and this fit the bill perfectly.

The smell of Black Currant reminds me of my childhood. My mother never allowed Kool-Aid in the house and soda pop was a rarity. However, she would allow me to drink black currant squash and this made no sense because squash syrup is super sugary. I was always very happy to take advantage of my mother’s clear lapse in sugar policing, and I’d greedily gulp down black currant squash whenever I could get my hands on it.

Black Currant from Harney & Sons is the perfect combination of the black currant I loved as a child and smooth, rich black tea. I adore this tea! I’m enjoying it with almond milk and stevia and it’s improving my afternoon tenfold. A big thank you (((hug))) to SimplyJenW for sharing this fab tea with me.

Also, I feel like I owe my generous Steepster friends an explanation/ apology. Many of you have done tea swaps with me, and I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for all of the glorious tea I’ve received. I carefully store every tea I get from my tea-pals so that I know who gave me which sample, but I haven’t logged every sample I’ve tried. I always intend to do so, but sometimes I become overwhelmed with “stuff” and I forget to backlog my tea tasting. Please don’t take this as my not being appreciative of the incredible tea-kindness I’ve enjoyed. I just suck sometimes :/

I am going through my tea boxes and such and trying to whittle down the stash. I found a sample packet of this in loose leaf form and it had been opened. Good gracious, is it the same one I tasted two years ago??

I had enough leaves for one medium sized cup. For some reason, I was thinking I had disliked it all those years ago, but my review says we enjoyed it, just not as much as Tower of London. That is pretty accurate with how I feel today. This is good, it has nice berry flavor, but the honey flavor gives an extra little something to ToL that makes it more special to me, plus the fact that EVERYONE was sold out at the time that I first decided I wanted to try ToL and hubby found a tea shop online that had it, ordered it as a surprise, and we drank it together with steepster tea friend Sandy. So the memory adds to the experience of the tea, too!

This is a very good tea hot with no additions, but I bet if you like to add sugar it would be really sweet and fruity, and therefore probably great iced as well.

Thank you BoxerMama for this DAY FOUR on the 12 days of Christmas exchange!
This is a really nice black currant in a good black base!
I do like H and S’s teas and this does not disappoint!
It smells really good too!
True to black currant in flavor without being artificial.
I may have to get some of this in the future.
Thank you again I loved the muslin bag you packaged the tea in!
:)

I’ve had quite a few mugs of this tea today. The black currant is nice, but what I really like about this tea is the base tea. It’s strong, smooth and rich. There’s no bitterness. The black currant flavor is nice. It’s not over the top, but it is constantly present.

The more I drink fruit flavored black teas the more I realize I want to taste the fruit, but I don’t want it to drown out the flavor of the tea. Especially when it’s such a good tea.

Woohoo, 100th tasting note! I decided to go with a tried and true favorite for this momentous occasion. I came across Harney’s Black Currant when I first was delving into loose leaf tea and I fell in love instantly. The smell of this tea gets me every time – it’s a little musty and reminds me of the aroma of a cute little old man’s tobacco for some reason. I love that you can really taste the strong black tea in this, and that the berry flavor isn’t overwhelming or artificial at all. The longer this tea is steeped, the stronger the berry flavor becomes, with no real bitterness from the black tea. With a little milk and sweetener, it’s my ideal of the perfect cup!

-Dry tea has medium black tea leaves and twigs with a few dried currants.
-Dry leaves smell musty and fruity. Tea liquor aroma is of malty sweet berries.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark brown color.
-Robust black tea flavor with a sweet currant finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. Perfect cup of strong black tea with a hint of juicy currant berries.

Thanks BoxerMama for day #3! My tasting note is late but I drank it on the day. mm I loved the smoothness – I’m always excited to try teas from H&S because they’re so hard to find here!!

This one did not disappoint – very prominent smooth base with sweet black currant notes to add a hint of mystery! Love!

http://www.daisychubb.com/on-the-fourth-day-and-5-golden-rings/